Posted
by
Soulskill
on Friday March 16, 2012 @04:58PM
from the it's-a-me,-michaelangelo dept.

bednarz writes "The Smithsonian's 'Art of Video Games' exhibition opens today. To kick it off, they're holding a three-day festival with panel discussions, live action gaming, and crafting activities. 'Video games allow us as human beings to explore our dreams, our fears, our thoughts, our morals, and engage with each other in a way that no other medium allows us to. I find that inspiring and beautiful, and I am so happy to be alive during this time. We are going to experience, I think, one of the greatest surges of artistic intent in human history, and I believe that the majority of it will come through video games,' said Chris Melissinos, former Sun exec and guest curator of the new exhibition."

Seeing how I live nearby, I'll try to check this out soon. I'm interested in seeing how "games as art" will be portrayed. The Smithsonian exhibits are known to be very good, and I suspect this one will be impressive as well. Let's not forget that they're also the best free museums I've ever seen.

Though they may seem like ancient history now, games with groundbreaking stories, movies, music and scenery have certainly left an impact on our generation(s). I don't think I'll ever forget the world or batt

Where the heck is the Apple ][ category... no Oregon Trail, Choplifter, Lode Runner, Rescue Raiders, Karateka (the first game to have cut scenes), nor Conan ???

*sniff* no Loom, Monkey Island, Guardian Heroes.:-/ Nice to see Rez, and Shadows of the Colossus though.

i.e.* Although there isn't much to do in Shadow of the Colossus other thankilling the colossi and sightseeing, you'll find yourself captivatedenough by the scenery to sink hours into just wandering around theplace and drinking in the beauty of the setting. Scenery Porn at itsfinest. [ http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SceneryPorn [tvtropes.org] ]

That's why I thought SoC was overrated. There's not a lot to do, and it's all very samey. Once you get tired of looking at things, the game is real quick and easy to beat. Or it would be, if it didn't take so much time to navigate. I swear I spent more time riding from colossus to colossus than actually fighting them. Yawn.

It would have been more interesting if there was stuff in the world to do. Encourage me to explore by putting some chests with items, that sort of thing. I spent a lot more time aimlessly wandering the countryside in Dragon Quest VIII than SoC.

So you missed all the "catch the lizard tails to upgrade your grip power" and "ride the giant eagle to fly the countryside" and "climb the tower to visit the secret garden" and the "new game plus to unlock the magic weapons?" (How did you defeat the colossi without the lizard tails BTW)? You should be reading the game walkthroughs when you think you're missing the fun.

It's not. It really, really isn't; personally I was annoyed when they originally announced the games in the running. Very few of the games on the list deserve to be on any list about art—and certainly there aren't many that couldn't be replaced with something better. This suggests that TAOVG is just a publicity stunt to try and get game players to visit and pay attention to the Smithsonian; they're not really giving it equal treatment as an artform.

In their defense, I don't think art critics allocate a big portion of their lifes to gaming so guessing that no gamers were actually involved in the selection going with successes might have been a save move.

Also a lot of people misunderstand gaming art for gaming themed visual art. It's not that. I personally have my own reservations to the selections, I'd like to have seen some Tale of tales [tale-of-tales.com] games in there - because those come very close to actually being art in the sense of having no other function other

Agreed on SMB.Agreed that Metroid (prferably the Game Boy Advance version =) should be included.Along with Mortal Kombat for the SNES.The Modern Windows version should include Limbo and/or Braid.Also would of preferred Ico over SoC.

There are only two PC game categories -- one for old DOS/Windows, and one for "modern" Windows. Eight games doesn't seem like very much for 20 years, especially when 15 of those years were very distinct from console gaming. That being said, the list of games isn't bad. Lots of recognizable and clearly significant titles. I'd actually like to see this if I get the chance.

Phantasy Star and Phantasy Star IV classified as "Adventure"? I guess they're throwing all RPG games into that category? I mean, Legend of Zelda is more Adventure than RPG but PS and PSIV are quite a bit more "open" as far as the RPG element goes.... For that matter, FFVII and Fallout3 as well.